The present invention relates to a coin processing apparatus used in an apparatus such as an automatic vending machine, money changing machine or service machine, that sorts and stores inserted coins according to denomination, and that pays out the sorted and stored coins as change, and more particularly, to an improvement regarding a coin sorter that can determine whether inserted coins are genuine or not and can sort genuine coins according to denomination.
Apparatus such as an automatic vending machine, money changing machine or service machine currently in use has been provided with A coin processing apparatus that sorts and stores inserted coins according to denomination and pays out the sorted and stored coins as change.
This coin processing apparatus generally comprises four components:
(1) A housing constituting the apparatus main body of the coin processing apparatus;
(2) A coin sorter, located at the top of this housing, that determines whether inserted coins are genuine or false and sorts the genuine coins according to denomination;
(3) A coin storage unit, located inside the housing and below the coin sorter, that comprises a plurality of coin tubes that accumulate and store according to denomination genuine coins that were sorted by denomination; and
(4) A coin payout unit, located inside the housing and below the coin storage unit, that pays as change the genuine coins stored inside the coin storage unit.
Meanwhile, in an automatic vending machine in which is installed a coin processing apparatus having the above construction, where a product purchaser terminates the product purchase for some reason after inserting the coins that were to pay for the intended product and wants the coins to be returned, the purchaser operates A coin return lever located on the automatic vending machine.
When this is done, because an amount of coins equal to the amount of money inserted is returned to the coin return outlet, the product purchaser who desires the return of the inserted coins can collect the coins that were returned to the coin return outlet.
Incidentally, in the generally-used coin processing apparatus described above, this coin return processing is based on the operation of a coin return lever, and is carried out through payment by the coin payout unit of coins equal in amount to the coins inserted, such payment being made from the coin storage unit to the coin return outlet.
In other words, in the generally-used coin processing apparatus, where coin return processing is carried out, the coins paid out to the coin return outlet are not the same coins that were inserted by the product purchaser. Instead, coins equal in amount to the coins inserted are paid out to the coin return outlet from among the genuine coins previously stored in the coin storage unit.
In this way, in the conventional coin processing apparatus, where inserted coins are to be returned, the coins that were actually inserted are not paid out, and instead coins equal in amount to the coins inserted are paid out to the coin return outlet from among the genuine coins previously stored in the coin storage unit. Therefore, if someone inserts into the coin processing apparatus counterfeit coins (false coin) that are realistic enough to be deemed genuine by the coin sorter and then operates the coin return lever without purchasing a product, genuine coins in an amount equal to the amount inserted are paid out even though the coins inserted were counterfeit, and as a result, the so-called coin switching phenomenon occurs.
In order to prevent such coin switching, a so-called same-coin return-type coin processing apparatus has been proposed in the conventional art, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-288480, in which a coin sorter installed in the apparatus includes a coin retaining lever located at the downstream end of each individual coin route to which are connected a plurality of denomination distributing levers that distribute by denomination coins that are determined to be genuine, i.e., at the downstream end of each coin route into which coins are ultimately sorted and guided by denomination. When inserted coins are temporarily retained inside the coin routes by the coin retaining levers and if the coin return lever is operated without a product being purchased, the hold on the inserted coins being retained temporarily in the coin routes by the coin retaining levers is cancelled, and the inserted coins themselves are paid out to the coin return outlet.
According to the same-coin return-type coin processing apparatus with a coin sorter disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-288480, where the coin return lever is operated and coins are to be returned, because the coins that were actually inserted are paid out, even where counterfeit coins (false coin) that are realistic enough to be deemed genuine by the coin sorter are inserted, the inserted coins (false coin) themselves are paid out to the coin return outlet. As a result the occurrence of the coin switching phenomenon is eliminated to the maximum possible extent.
In addition to the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-288480, the conventional art also includes a same-coin return-type coin processing apparatus that includes a coin sorter wherein, when a plurality of high-value coins (a 500-yen coin and a 100-yen coin, for example) are retained temporarily in their coin routes in accordance with the length thereof and the return lever is operated without a product purchase, the temporarily retained multiple coins are returned as a group to the coin return outlet.
Incidentally, the conventional coin sorters used in the same-coin return-type coin processing apparatuses described above entail the problem that, because it is necessary to add coin retaining levers to the conventional mechanism, as well as new coin distributing levers to distribute coins temporarily retained by the coin retaining levers into the storage compartment, the coin storage unit or the coin return outlet, new driving means each comprising a solenoid to drive these coin distributing levers must be added accordingly, which increases the number of parts and makes the control needed for driving the solenoids even more complex.
The present invention was created with the foregoing in view, and an object thereof is to provide a coin sorter in which the number of driving means need not be increased even where the number of denomination distributing levers is increased.
According to the present invention, a coin sorter comprising coin discrimination means for determining whether inserted coins are genuine or false and types of genuine coins, and a plurality of distributing levers for distributing coins determined as genuine into respective coin routes according to denomination, is characterised in that three distributing levers among the plurality of distributing levers are linked by link means, and the three linked levers are driven in an interlocking fashion via the link means using a single solenoid that drives one of the three linked levers.